Understanding how landscape features such as roads, rivers and soil influence the movement of individuals is important for managing threatened and endangered species. This study aims to use novel landscape genetic methods to identify landscape features and habitat variables that may shape individual movement and population biology in the federally threatened gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus). This will aid in our understanding of how natural and human-influenced landscape features affect tortoise distribution. The results will greatly assist in the designation of conservation management areas based on landscape features that form natural boundaries to populations and the unique genes they contain. At the individual level, genetic analyses will be combined with detailed ecological data to test hypotheses about the relative importance of particular aspects of the habitat in shaping local movements. The information gained from this study will also be combined with data on the occurrence of an emerging infectious disease to better understand how landscape and ecology may affect disease transmission.
The proposed research has the potential to advance the field of landscape genetics by demonstrating its direct applicability to population management issues for threatened and endangered species. This work has already provided research opportunities for several undergraduate minority students and with the current funding an additional student will receive field and laboratory training. Results from this research will be disseminated in a variety of educational settings including educational outreach at local high schools, presentations at professional meetings, and publication in peer-reviewed journals.
